Knowing where to start can be a bit frustrating, especially for anyone over thirty and already not feeling so young in the dating world. That is no reason to get beside your self, there are lots of places where we can find new and interested people.

I have some mixed feelings about meeting people on myspace. Some of my friends have been dating from there (some with a lot of success) but I get tons of spam friend requests from what looks to be porn stars. I personally have not dated anyone I didn't already know from myspace but it has been a great place to look up old flames and crushes that I probably would have never ran into again. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of nights when you could catch me browsing through all the pretty people there, and there are plenty.

So, where do you start?

Lets start at the beginning.

What are you looking for? ? Straight sex? A specific fetish? Are you curious about them all? Do you want information before deciding? Do you want to meet in the flesh or chat online?

Make sure you can answer these questions up front. You need to know before hand exactly what you are looking for and how far you want to take it.

Try to find a site that is interesting to you. Remember there are thousands of dating sites and they all have something different to offer. We won't get into all that now but don't worry, here in the near future you can read about my experiences and also my reviews of tons of these places right here. You can also find a continuous supply of dating information I will be updating regularly at Datesiteinfo.com. And remember it's cool for women to make the first contact too!

When you find something that you like (a site that seems like a good one), fill out your personal information truthful, don't post your phone number, but answer all the questions about yourself truthful. Remember the Internet reaches many people and you're more like likely to find someone you could be looking for if you post our real interest and such. Just be truthful it will pay off.

Put a picture on your profile. Make sure it's of you and only you! Try and not use the cute picture of you and your dog, or cat. And definitely don not use a picture of you and your ex. Make sure your picture is not from high school or college, try and find something up to date. Just think about it, what if you were drooling over some hottie and they turned out to be bald or over weight. False advertisement is the first word that comes to mind.

Don't feel obligated to answer every contact. Just because it's a site about sex doesn't mean anyone can say ANYTHING to you or that you can say ANYTHING to anyone. Just remember even though it is easy to talk online or instant message people, if you are looking for some one real, than keep it real. If you're not interested then don't reply. You wouldn't accept a drink, dance or advance from just anyone in a club and the same applies to introduction sites.

Remember there are thousands of people out there looking to make new friends, find romance, find a sex partner that match their hopes, dreams or fantasies. You can find all these people for less per month than one night out on the town. And let's be honest, how often will you come across people from around the world that you can talk so freely from the moment you meet them? Keep this in mind, no matter how good your profile is, how cute your picture, if you don't talk or reply to people, what's the point.

I know we have only talked about a few simple things here about online dating, but there is much more to come.

Andy Braudway